Minato: Lightning Chronicles
by shinigami-shane
Summary: Namikaze Minato, son of the Onikage, abandons his home and his family to discover the secrets of his father's past.
1. Minato Uzumaki: Enter: Minato Uzumaki

A/N

A bit of background on this story. I came up with the idea for this story after Naruto killed some of the members of the Elder Council during his fight against Pain, so it's set after that. As a consequence of killing the elders Naruto was banished and there was no 4th Great Ninja War as he went into hiding. As such the political landscape of the Five Great Nations has not changed and they are not allied with each other. Other changes shall be revealed in time.

XXXXXXX

Minato had been planning for this for a while and now was finally the time to put his plan into action. He was leaving Onigakure, his hometown. He got up, out of his bed at midnight, as the clouds covered the moon. He put on his black zip-off pants and a dark blue shirt and sandals the same style as his father's. As a last step he donned a pair of grey goggles. He then tiptoed through the house and whispered, "See ya sis'," as he passed his twin's room. He then crept noiselessly through the rest of the house. He made his way through the village using the backstreets to avoid the patrols that his father had started after he became leader of their village.

Once he had reached the gates he noticed the two guards sitting at the registration desk. They were asleep. Minato wasn't going to take any chances though and crawled right next to the desk so that they wouldn't see him if they managed to wake up in time to stop him. Once he was out of the gates he stood back up and trotted off, headed to a little known path through the mountain range separating the Land of Demons and the Land of Wolves, intending to cut around the Land of Wind. Before he could even take one step on the path a bolt of lightning struck the path and when he could see properly again Minato saw the last person that he would have expected. He exclaimed "Tōchan!?" his father didn't say a word, instead letting his cloak flap in the wind. "There's a _really_ good explanation for this."

His father raised his right eyebrow as if to say, 'Really? I highly doubt that!'

"Yeah. You see, Azumi-chan dared me to find some nightshade and there's this patch in the next vall…"

Minato's father sighed and said, "You'll really have to do better than _that_ to pull one over on the jōnin of Konoha."

"The…of…uhh…." Minato stepped backwards as he said, "Konoha? What are you saying? Why would I be…"

Minato's father sighed and said, "Did you really think that your mother and I wouldn't notice?"

"Well, you're so busy and…"

Minato's father sighed and said, "I've known that you'd do this since I told you that story years ago."

Minato exclaimed, "Seriously!? But then _why_…?"

"You need to have your own experiences. I won't get in the way of that. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean I can just let you go off by yourself like this."

"Then you have come to stop me."

"No Minato. I haven't." Minato's father tapped a spot on his cloak and threw a pile of cloth to Minato, who caught it as it flew through the air.

Minato said, "What is…?" as he moved the fabric through his hands until it was the right way up. "This is!" and flung himself into his father, hugging him for the last time for at least a few years.

His father laughingly said, "Put it on," as he let his son down. As Minato put his new cloak on his father continued, "It's the same style as mine, but the main colour is black and the flames are crimson."

"Thank you! I…I…"

"You don't need to say anything. But I would like you to give me all of your Onigakure-style weapons."

"My…Why?"

"Because," Minato's father sighed, "You can't have anything that can be traced back to here. Otherwise you could be arrested, or maybe even something worse."

"Well…alright…but how will I…?"

"Don't worry about that. That cloak is fully sealed and has generic kunai and shuriken as well as a tantō, not that it would do you much good.

"Okay thanks, but wouldn't this be able to be traced here?" Minato asked, fingering his coat.

"No. It may be able to be traced back to _me, _but the materials used in it were acquired from a Land of Fire textile merchant. So there's no need to be concerned on that account."

"Well, alright then. Thanks Tōchan," Minato said, handing the weapons that he had packed to his father before waving farewell and walking along the trail.

Once he had watched Minato disappear, Naruto went back to the gates and found that they were still asleep. Naruto narrowed his eyes and shrugged as he thought, _'Well, something has to be done,'_ and tapped the desk that the guards were sitting at, inscribing a seal in front of both guards before heading back to the house that he shared with his pregnant wife and daughter.

XXXXX

About a month later Minato staggered into view of the gates of Konoha, not having been able to find food for the last three days and not drinking for the last two. As he passed the guards at the gate, one of them said, "Name and reason for being in Konoha?" Minato completely ignored them in his desire for proper sustenance and kept on walking.

The second guard called out, "Hey! Hey kid!" Minato didn't hear him so the guard got up and leapt over the desk and said, "Hey, wait up a sec would ya. What's your na…" putting his hand on Minato's shoulder. "...me!" and cried out in pain as Minato grabbed the hand off of his shoulder and bit into it, with his mouth watering, seeing it as food. The guard chopped Minato in the back of his neck with his other hand, knocking him out, to stop the boy from eating his hand.

XXXXX

Minato groaned as he woke up and tried to rub his eyes of the sleep dust in them, but found that he couldn't. He then tried to force his arm up and heard a clanking noise but still couldn't move himself. He then opened his eyes and found that he was looking at a ceiling made up of many white panels. He thought, '_This room looks just like…but I left Onigakure over a month ago, so…_' Minato tried to turn onto his side to look out the window, but ended up only able to turn his head. When he had done so he saw not the mountains that he was used to seeing through a hospital window, but a field of grass edged by a bright garden filled with orchids of many colours. It was bounded by a chicken wire fence separating it from the tree-filled Hidden Village. He realised that he must have made it somehow, though the last days of his trip were slightly fuzzy.

He heard a voice say, "You're up!" from the other side of his bed. He turned to look after them as they left, but he only got to see a flick of pink hair fly behind the doctor(?) that had clearly been looking after him.

Minato said to himself, "Well, there's care for ya!" Five minutes later the pink haired medic came back into the room with a blue haired woman that had her hair in the same style as his mother's, but this lady had pale lavender eyes. Minato said, "Uh…hi," and grinned fox-like.

For some reason the sudden urge to inflict mass amounts of pain on her patient descended over the medic-nin, who said, "Hi. My name's Sakura and I'm the doctor that's been looking after you for the last few days."

"Days!?" Minato exclaimed. "How long was I out for?"

"Technically it's about forty hours, but two nights have passed since you got here."

"Seriously?!" Minato almost shrieked. "Normally I'm out of these places in a couple of hours."

"Hours?"

"Yeah," Minato grinned, "I heal real quick," causing that urge to wash over Sakura even stronger than before.

"Is that so?" Sakura asked, writing something down on whatever was on her cliplboard.

"Yeah. Otōsan told me that lying to female doctors is bad for my health."

"Is that so?" the blue haired woman said.

"Yeah. I asked him why once and he told me that he had this brute of a teammate."

"Oh? Is that so?" the blue haired woman said, seeing the tick mark appearing on her friend's forehead.

"Yeah. I asked my Mum what she thought of that teammate since it seemed to be a bit of a sore point with Otōsan and she told me that Otōsan's teammate was a brain-dead banshee."

Sakura shouted, "SHANNARRROOOOO!" as she slammed her fist into Minato's stomach, getting terrified of the consequences that she would be facing as she saw Minato's face contort in pain. That was quickly replaced by anger as the patient that she just punched exploded into many red and black orchids.

The blue haired woman started to laugh as pink chakra roiled around her friend, visible evidence of her rage. Sakura said, "Hinata! _Where_ is he?"

Hinata sighed and said, "No Sakura, I'm not going to let you go off and kill him. Remember, Hokage-sama has put him under _my_ care. Besides, you're on call."

Sakura grunted before sighing and saying, "Fine," the chakra fading away. "Make sure he gets back here."

"Alright," Hinata said, activating her Byakugan as she leapt through the window.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Minato had followed his nose to a ramen stand near a big building with the symbol for fire plastered above it. When he felt his clone's memories return to him upon its destruction he said, "Yūkaku Bunshin no Tenjou," confusing the ramen stand owners more than his ordering eight bowls of extra-large miso-pork ramen with extra narutomaki causing the owner, Ichiraku Ayame, to have tears well up in her eyes.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Attacks

Minato

Yūkaku Bunshin no Tenjou: Orchid Clone of the Heavens

A physical clone that uses one or more flowers charged with chakra to create. It explodes into many flowers, of the type(s) used in its creation, when struck, providing a useful smokescreen


	2. Minato Uzumaki: Minato's Fate

About halfway through his meal Minato saw someone sit down next to him out of the corner of his eyes. He thought, '_Hey, isn't that…_' as he heard the woman order a bowl of seafood ramen.

Once she had ordered Hinata said, "So. Here you are. I might have expected it, but even so, how did you find your way here?"

"Easy. I just followed the scent of the food of the gods."

Hinata and Ayame thought, '_The food of the…then…?_' Hinata asked, "So, what did you say your name was again?"

"Hmm…" Minato said, thinking over the memories that he had gotten from his clone's destruction and said, "I don't think I gave it, did I?"

"No."

"Hmm..." Minato thought quickly, '_Otōsan said that I shouldn't give anything away that could lead them to Onigakure, but leading them to him would be fine. In that case…_' "My name's Uzumaki Minato. What's yours?"

Hinata and Ayame smiled at the same time, thinking, '_Then he's alive!_' even though the thought that he'd had children and must be married brought a hint of sadness to Hinata. Hinata asked, "So, who's your father Minato?"

"Hmm," Minato said, thinking, '_I probably shouldn't tell them outright.' _"I'd rather not talk about it," a sad look on his face.

A look of concern fell over Hinata's face and she asked, "Why not?"

Minato sadly said, "I can't see him anymore." He thought, '_Not technically a lie._'

"Hmm," Hinata said thoughtfully. '_I wonder what he meant by that. I've dealt with consoling people over their loved ones' deaths before and, while Minato-kun is doing an impressive act that would fool anybody that hadn't done so, there's not enough grief behind that look. That said, I don't think that he was lying. So a partial lie then? Hmm…interesting._'

Minato interrupted Hinata's thoughts as he said, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have seen my cloak lying around, would you? It wasn't with me in that room."

"Your…why?" Hinata asked, well aware that the coat had been taken away to be examined when Sakura had seen the seals all over it.

"It was the last thing that I received from my father, so…"

"No. I'm sorry," Hinata said, telling a partial lie herself, as she hadn't actually _seen_ the coat, only told about it by the Hokage. "I'll see what I can do about it."

"Thanks."

"That's fine. Just out of curiosity, what was that technique that you used in the hospital? I could be wrong, but I'd say that it was based off of the Kage Bunshin jutsu."

"You're not wrong."

Hinata interrupted Minato, asking, "I'm sorry, but how do you that jutsu? It's only taught here in Konoha."

Minato said, "Well, Otōsan trained me some before he…went away," sticking with the story that he had come up with over the month since he left Onigakure.

"Do you mind my asking what you know?"

"Well, Otōsan always said that information is the lifeblood of a shinobi, so…yeah, I do kinda mind."

"Oh? Well, if you say so," Hinata said, thinking, '_Bugger. If only he had told me _that_ then we could get past the traditional waiting period._' She sighed and said, "Well, in any case, is there anything in particular that you want to do while you're here?"

"Well, if it's possible, could I become a ninja?"

"You want to…" Hinata said, somewhat taken aback by the blunt way that he put it. She sighed before continuing. "That may not be possible."

"Why?" Minato asked, shocked that he might be denied the right to even try.

"Well, normally there would be no problems. But…"

"But?"

"Well, you see, you're not from Konoha, or even the Land of Fire itself in all probability. On top of that, the first thing that you did was to attack one of our shinobi when you got here."

"Attack? I didn't attack anything."

"Then why did you need to be knocked out and dragged to the hospital?"

"Oh! Wait…then you mean that that bit of ham that I saw drop onto my shoulder _wasn't_ ham after all?"

"Bit of…" a look of stunned half-comprehension found its way to Hinata's face. "So…you're telling me that you actually thought that Kamizuki-san's hand was food?"

Minato said, "Ya-hah," before ordering another six bowls of the same miso-pork ramen.

Hinata sighed and rested her head in her hand as she looked on, smiling bemusedly, as Minato shovelled his second helping of too many bowls of ramen into his mouth, unsure of either what to think, or how to proceed. "Well," Hinata said, hesitation evident in her tone, "at least now we know what happened. But just out of curiosity, why did you think that Kamizuki-san's hand was food?"

"Well, I ran out of food and water a couple of before that and…well…just about everything around me was looking like food at the time," Minato sheepishly said.

Hinata sighed before saying, "Is that so?"

"Yep."

Hinata thought, _'Well, that's one thing done at any rate. On top of that, I'd say that I've got enough information to make a rational assessment that Minato-kun is Naruto-kun's son. That _should_ get him past the whole not being from the Land of Fire bit. Based on a best guess, he's probably of an age where he could enter the academy, but if he can use Kage Bunshin already, then he's past the stage that his peers would currently be at. Hmm…I think I really should get him to talk to the Hokage and let _her_ decide what to do from here.'_ She said, "You know what Minato-kun…I think that I'm going to have to take you to meet the Hokage after all."

"Seriously?!" Minato exclaimed, excited to meet the leader of another village. Hinata nodded. Minato scoffed down his last bowl of ramen and said to Ayame, "Thanks ma'am."

Ayame asked, "Who's paying for these?" referring to the twenty-four bowls of ramen that he had stacked up next to him.

Minato grinned as he said, "That nice medic, Sakura said that she'd pay for them when she let me out of the hospital earlier," and hopped off his seat and exited the ramen stand.

When Minato had gone, Ayame looked at Hinata and asked, "Is that true?"

Hinata said, "Sure it is," wanting to see what her friend's reaction would be. Then she left.

"Well, if you say so," Ayame said to Hinata's back, not having any reason to doubt the Hyūga's words.

XXXXX

About twenty long minutes later, for Minato at any rate, Hinata and Minato were let into the Hokage's office. Once they were Hinata nodded respectfully and said, "Hokage-sama."

The Hokage groaned as she spun around her chair, crossing her legs onto the side of her desk as she said, "How many times do I have to tell you Hinata, you can still call me by my first name."

"I could never," Hinata sarcastically said, "Hokage-sama is Hokage-sama after all."

A tick mark formed on the Hokage's forehead and Minato said to her, "Hey. You know, when my mother was angry my Otōsan told her that anger makes one look old."

The Hokage's lip started to twitch as she tersely said, "Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Why are you telling us that?"

"Well…no offense, but I'd say that that sentiment applies to you."

"Is that so?" the Hokage asked in a scarily calm tone, sending shivers down Minato's spine.

Minato ignored the danger sense that he was getting from the blonde Hokage and said, "Yeah. Wh-aAAAHHHH!" screaming as he flew through the door to her office, through the outer wall of the building and into the distance.

Hinata said, "Well, as you can see, he clearly behaves just like 'him'."

"_Him_? You don't mean…?"

"Yeah. Beyond that he told me that his name is Uzumaki Minato."

"_Uzumaki!?_" The Hokage exclaimed. Hinata nodded. "I see. Well, I am curious as to what he was doing in my office before I sent him flying. I thought that he was due to be stuck in hospital for at least three more days yet."

"Well, according to him, Minato-kun heals quickly."

"Even so, he should have been secured in his bed. On top of which, I had Sakura look after him too. So how…"

"Apparently he used the concepts of the Tajū Kage Bunshin to create some kind of weird flower clone to take his place. Though he has been reticent to reveal to me exactly how he managed to get out of the restraints in the first place."

"I see. Well, he'll have to, at the very least, tell _me _what he can do."

Minato, who had found his way back to the Hokage Tower, entered through the window, shocking both Hinata and the Hokage, neither of whom had been looking to sense him, expecting him to rush through the tower to get to them. He said, "Tell you what?"

The Hokage swivelled around on her chair and said, "So, you can do the tree-walking exercise?"

"Yeah. It's one of the first things that Otōsan taught me, although _he_ didn't use a tree."

"Oh?" the Hokage said, interested in the method used by the boy's father. "So what did he use?"

"He chucked us down to the bottom of a ravine and told me to get back up within a day, neglecting to mention that there were Bottle Trees lining the cliff."

"Bottle Trees?" Hinata said, speaking for both herself and the Hokage. That's because, despite the Hokage's vast experience with plant life, neither knew just _what_ a bottle tree was.

"Yeah. You've never heard of them?" Minato asked, surprise in his voice as he had always figured that everyone would know about them. "It's a really annoying tree. You see they aren't very big, but they have these really hard, sharp, spikes all over them."

The Hokage asked, "Why'd you only have a day to do it?"

"Well, it was about to enter the rainy season and the ravine tends to flood."

"I see," The Hokage said, thinking, '_of all the irresponsible…_'

"Well in any case, it worked. I got out of there."

"Did your father not care about you at all?"

"You take that back!" Minato fiercely said. "Otōsan loved me very much I'll have you know."

"Then why…?"

Minato said, "I asked him why he gave me such a hard time," while he thought, '_Well, technically Amayah asked him._' "And he told me that it wasn't his job to protect me from the world, only to get me ready to face it."

"I see. That's an interesting way of looking at it," the Hokage said. "At any rate. Before we see about your status in Konoha, I'd like to know why it is you came here."

"Well, Otōsan used to tell me stories, and I wanted to see if any of them were true. So far they seem to be."

"Okay, so what would you like to do while you're doing that?"

"Well, if it's possible, I'd like to take part in Konoha's shinobi program."

"Hmm…alright." Minato started to exclaim his glee, but he was cut short when the Hokage said, "But you'll need to tell me what you can already do."

"Why?" Minato asked, not too willing to tell anybody more than they needed to know about him to keep his past secret.

"Because I'm Hokage and I need to know what my shinobi can do to properly utilize them if the need arises."

"I see," Minato said. "In that case, as you saw, I can use that tree-climbing thingy that we talked about before. I am rather skilled in Bunshinjutsu if I do say so myself."

"Oh?" the Hokage said, "how so?"

Well, for starters I can use Kage Bunshin. I can also incorporate other materials into it." Minato turned to Hinata and said, "That's how I made that flower clone in the hospital." He then turned back to the Hokage. "I can also use Kawarimi, but I'm having some issues with the Henge."

The Hokage thought back to her time in the academy and thought, '_Well, given who his father is I suppose that that doesn't really come as much of a surprise._'

"That's about it," Minato said, leaving out his knowledge of a jutsu that he created with his sister as his father had analysed it completely and made it mandatory for all students in the Onigakure Academy; As such, it would give the game away before it even began.

"I see," The Hokage said. She thought, _'That means that he was being trained on a system similar to that which we use, despite the use of Kage Bunshin rather than the normal Bunshin taught here. If that's the case, then it should be relatively easy to stick Minato-kun in with the kids the same age as him.'_ The Hokage said, "Well then Minato, I see no problem sticking you with other students your own age."

"Thanks. But…there's just this one thing…"

"Oh? What would that be?"

"My coat…"

"Oh," The Hokage said. "That's a bit different."

"Why? It shouldn't be that difficult to give it back, should it?"

"Well, my people aren't finished with it just yet. When they're satisfied, then we will return it to you. Until such time though, I'm afraid that you're just going to have to wait."

"I see," Minato said, sad to be parted with the last gift his father gave him so soon.

"Don't worry. My people are really good at what they do, so it shouldn't be too long."

"Okay, thanks," Minato said perking up at the possibility of getting his cloak back soon.

"That's fine. In the meantime you shall be under the care of Hinata here. I _hope_ you don't have a problem."

"Uhh…no…no problem…none at all," Minato squeaked, catching the Hokage's tone that told him that 'no' wasn't an option.

The Hokage smiled and said, "Good. Well then, with that settled, I think that I can let you go for now."

"Thanks," Minato said, for some reason wanting to leave the office as soon as possible.

The Hokage said, "See you later Hinata."

Hinata called out, "You shall, Ino," as she left the Hokage's office.


	3. Minato Uzumaki: A History

After they had left the Hokage's Office Hinata took Minato to her place. It was a house that was in the grounds of the old Uchiha Compound. It had been put up for sale when it was confirmed that Sasuke had been a part of Akatsuki and had taken over Otogakure. She had bought it at auction soon after she had renounced all ties to the Hyūga Clan so that her sister would have no political concerns about the Clan Elders trying to replace her, or about future successions. After much manoeuvring Hanabi, as Clan Head, along with Ino, the incumbent Hokage, declared that the Branch Clan was to be abolished and absorbed by the Main Branch. As there was now no longer any Branch Clan, there was no longer any need for the Hyūga Sōke no Juinjutsu, so it wasn't applied to Hinata when she left, nor were her memories wiped of the Hyūga secrets, so she was allowed to keep the name 'Hyūga' as her own.

When they arrived Hinata let them both in and said, "You can use the first room on the left when you go upstairs."

Minato rushed upstairs and flung the backpack that he had been carrying since he left the hospital onto the bed and went back downstairs. When he saw Hinata making some tea he sat down on one of the stools placed next to the bench dividing the kitchen area and the dining/living room. He said, "So…I don't mean to sound rude, or offend you by this, but…"

"Yes?" Hinata said, her tone informing Minato that she was unlikely to take offence at whatever he had to talk about.

"How long will I have to live here with you?"

"Ah. Well, technically the answer would be however long you want to. But you are required to live with a minimum of three months with me."

"Oh?"

"It's just standard protocol for all new entrants to Konoha. Of course, normally a jōnin would just keep track of your movements. Since you're just a kid though, you've been put under my care. So for all intents and purposes I'll be your guardian until you are done in the academy."

"My guardian?"

"Yes. It's little more than a title here in Konoha, but you'll need to get my permission to go on the various outings that the students go on."

"'S'at so?" Minato asked.

"Yes. For now though, you told the Hokage the ninjutsu that you can use, but I was wondering what you know about Konoha in general?"

"What do you mean?"

"In the first years in the academy the students are taught the history of the Konohagakure, along with some of the more prominent clans"

"Oh. No. I don't know anything like that," Minato said, his face dropping into a concentrated frown, trying to think on how he could learn these things.

Hinata smiled, thinking, '_Well, it would appear that he's not too much like 'him' after all. He must take after his mother then._' She said, "There's a book on the shelf over there," indicating the bookshelf against the staircase wall. "It's called The History of Konoha by Hyūga Katsuoka. It's not the academy textbook that you'll be using, but it has just about everything that you'll ever need to know about the village in it."

Minato looked through the bookshelf until he found the book that he had been told about and saw next to it '_The History of the Land of Fire_, by Hyūga Aoko' and _'The History of Modern Konoha_, by Hyūga Hinata.' Minato called out, "Hey all of these history books are written by members of some Hyūga family."

"Yes," Hinata said, "That would be because I took them with me when I left the Hyūga Clan's compound, although mine wasn't printed at the time."

"Yours?"

"Yes. It should be near that one I just told you about, 'The History of Modern Konoha."

Minato thought, '_She's Hyūga Hinata? That means that she knew Tōchan growing up. Maybe I should stick around here for a while after all,' _as he walked over to the couch facing the television on the far wall and lay down and started to read. He stayed there for the rest of the day, turning one page then the next, getting through about a third of it by the time dinner came around. After dinner he went back to reading his book.

By that time the next week Minato had finished _The History of the Land of Fire _and _The History of Konoha _and was about to start on_ The History of Modern Konoha_, but he found that that would have to wait because Hinata told him some good news. He was being let into the Konoha Ninja Academy the following day.

XXXXX

The next day Minato easily figured out the class naming system used and rocked up to the class that he was told that his classes would be held. He knocked on the door and waited for it to be opened to let him in. He was about to bang on the door impatiently when he heard a faint voice say, "Now today we have ourselves a new student coming into the class." Then the door opened and he was let in. The owner of the voice that he had heard said, "This is Uzumaki Minato and, as I said, from today he will be joining our classes."

A girl with a fox kit sitting on top of her head called out, "He looks kinda flaky."

Minato blurted, "Hey! I'm no breakfast!" almost all of the class exclaimed in confusion as the cereal that Minato was referring to was named as such only in the Land of Demons. In Konoha it was called something else.

"Well…that's…nice…" The teacher said. "At any rate, Minato, this is the class that you'll be joining and they've been together for almost half a year now, so I'd like you to tell us a bit about yourself before you take a seat."

"Okay," Minato said. "My name's Uzumaki Minato and I'm…" Minato thought, '_Come on, come on, say something cool!_ _Ah! That'll sound awesome!'_ "…gonna become Hokage!"

The class burst into laughter as the teacher thought, '_Geh, troublesome._'

The girl with a fox on her head blurted, "Hah! You, Hokage! Gimme a break! Setsuko has more chances of being Hokage then you!" and burst into laughter. She said, "I bet you don't even know why the village is called Konoha."

Minato said, "There is a popular belief that this village is referred to the Village Hidden in the Leaves due to the forest surrounding it, but that is incorrect. In actual fact, it goes back to before the Hidden Village System was founded by one of the men responsible for building Konoha during the Clan Wars. There was a very large and powerful clan that opposed the idea of creating a hidden village full of shinobi clans. They were referred to as the Clan of the Frond, the Adachi. They fought against the, til then, coalition of shinobi clans, forming them into one single force that easily put down the rebellion. In commemoration of that enemy that caused the various clans to come together, the founding fathers decided to call this village The Hidden Leaf."

The teacher thought, '_That's completely correct, though not the answer that is given in the second-year textbook. So how does he…I'll have to talk to the Hokage about this._'

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At the end of the day Minato rushed back to Hinata's house and flung his bag on his bed before running back downstairs and flopping onto the couch, opening the book that he had been wanting to read even before he had started on the other two, but unable to put either of them down. It took longer than he would have liked because the second book, ran on from the first. That was when a messenger ninja appeared in a puff of smoke outside the door and knocked. Hinata put down the book that she had been reading herself and went to the door and opened it. When she saw the mask with a snake design etched into it she thought, '_ANBU?_' and said, "What does the Hokage want?"

'Snake', said, "Ino-sama would like to talk to you concerning your…_guest_…Hyūga-dono."

Hinata said, "That's my sister."

"I'm sorry Hyūga-don…uhh…!" as a sweatdrop somehow appeared on the forehead of the mask that the man was wearing. Minato started to chuckle at the ease with which Hinata had flustered the ANBU within seconds, only ever having known his father and his sister to have the ability to do the same. He disappeared in a cloud of smoke, not knowing how to extricate himself from the hole that he was digging.

Hinata said, "Minato, I shouldn't be too long."

"Sure thing," Minato said, starting to read as his guardian shut the door.

Not even one minute later Hinata was standing before the Hokage in her office. She said, "Hokage-sama?"

Ino sighed and said, "I thought I said…" she sighed again. "You know what? It doesn't matter. What _does_ is what Minato-chan did today."

"Oh? What was that?"

"According to Kai, Minato made the rest of the students look like morons, though in the process made himself out to be the class fool."

"Excuse me?" Hinata asked as she couldn't see how someone could do both at the same time.

"The answers that he was giving in the revision session _were_ right, but he would have had to have access to information unavailable to the other students to give them. Because they weren't in the academy textbook. Would you care to explain how he knows the exact reason that our village is called the Village Hidden in the Leaves?"

"Well, it's simple really. When he was put into my care last week, as you know, his knowledge about Konoha and the Land of Fire in general was incredibly lacklustre, to say the least. So I just gave him access to some of the books in my house."

"_Which_ books?"

"'_The History of Konoha_'_,_ _'The History of the Land of Fire_' and he was just getting started on _'The History of Modern Konoha_' when you had me come here."

"Oh good grief," Ino said, covering her eyes with her hand. She asked, "He got through _them_ in a week?" having attempted to read both books herself and _she_ hadn't finished both volumes after a month. "Wait…_The History of _Modern_ Konoha?_ What is that? I haven't heard of it."

"Well…" Hinata said, scratching the back of her neck. "I…kind of wrote it myself."

"Huh? _You_ did?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Oh…it would have been about five or six years ago now."

"Five or six…wait…you didn't…what years does it cover?"

"Very astute Ino," Hinata said, a shark-like smile on her face. "It covers the years from when _The History of Konoha _finished up to the start of your reign."

"The…" Ino said, her eyes widening. "Oh no! He _can't!_" Ino glared at Hinata and said, "How _could_ you Hinata?"

"I was just being as exacting, factual and _objective_ as possible in my recount. Just like my grandmother and my great grandmother were in theirs. Besides, doesn't he have a right to know what happened to his father here? Along with the fallout?"

"Do you _really_ think that putting _that_ into print will help the village in any way?"

"If it was given to a publisher? I have no doubt that it would do anything other than tarnish the village's reputation irreparably."

"Then why?"

"Because, I have the only copy, and it has always been the belief of the Hyūga that _all_ of history must be recorded, the good _and_ the ill. That's why you will find histories within the Hyūga library that you won't find anywhere else. Well…come to think of it, that would imply that there is a similar work within the Hyūga library, wouldn't it?"

Ino hung her head, clasping both sides with her hands, supported by her elbows on her desk. She said, "Then there's _two_ copies?" her voice laced with pain.

"Not copies. Separate works with similar content. There _is_ a difference," Hinata indignantly said, having read her father's work. After she was done, she found that she disapproved of the work so much that she felt that she could no longer reside within the Hyūga clan, or associate herself with it with anything close to resembling pride. So she left, retaining only her name.


End file.
